Civil Aviation Ministry on wednesday allowed airlines to serve food and magazines in all domestic flights. All India Radio News tweeted; “Civil Aviation Ministry allows airlines to serve food and magazines in all domestic flights. In its order the Ministry says, the airlines, operating flights on domestic sectors may provide meal services on board, without restriction on duration of the flight.
“The airlines, operating flights on domestic sectors may provide meal services on board, without restriction on duration of the flight,” news agency PTI reported citing the ministry’s order.
Along with food services, the ministry has also permitted the resumption of magazines and other reading materials to the passengers, according to the order. The ministry noted that the decision to resume food services and magazines has been made as the “Covid caseload” has decreased due to the “proper implementation of appropriate Covid behaviour protocol”, the PTI report showed.
The announcement came a few days after the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Saturday (November 13) informed the civil aviation ministry that meals can be served in flights that have less than two hours of journey time, according to a PTI report. “The health ministry has now informed that serving food on flights of less than two hours can be resumed and that the crew members need not wear coveralls but should continue to wear gloves, masks and face shields,” PTI reported.
The ban on serving foods in flights that fly for less than two hours was implemented in April this year, during the second wave of Covid-19 infections in the country. However, on flights that had a journey time of more than two hours, food was allowed conditional that the tray, plates, cutlery should also be disposable and none should be reused.
Also beverages like tea, coffee, alcoholic and non-alcoholic were also allowed only in disposable cans and bottles. All crew members in the flight were asked to wear a fresh set of gloves after every meal or beverage served.
Earlier in August 2020, the government had allowed the carriers to serve food under certain conditions. “Airlines may serve pre-packed snacks/meals/pre-packed beverages on domestic flights depending on the duration of flight,” the ministry had said.